I'm a regular visitor to the Energy Corridor area trails alongside Buffalo Bayou. Last weekend I went farther down the waterway to get a look at the revamped greenbelt facilities immediately to the west of downtown. I decided to go carless for the afternoon, taking the bus downtown and rambled the trails on a
B-cycle bike. This blog post is some thoughts on the local transit situation.
I'll share pictures from the park in a separate post.
In August,
Metro re-launched its bus route network from scratch. Seeing these local lines below get beefed-up service means that Energy Corridor area transit has finally made a baby step forward in convenience for getting to in-city weekend fun at least:
82 Westheimer -- featured as part of the "Frequent Network" but can be crowded and rather slow as it makes numerous stops on what is probably the busiest commercial corridor in the city
160/161/162 Express lines (via Memorial City) and 152/153 Harwin Express -- these lines form alternatives that can get Westsiders into inner-Loop destinations in about an hour.
Another welcome addition: real-time bus arrival information via text messages. Every bus stop has a number, and if I text that number to 697433, I get a text back letting me know when the next bus can be expected. This is great for finding out if my bus is delayed.
Metro's interactive service map will show routes and the bus stop locations and their numbers. Checking the text-backs of adjacent stations will tell me if I can make a timely transfer between routes.
(For my personal workday commuting, however, even the new network is still useless. I'd only need to cover 10 miles, but the way the buses run would mean a two-hour trek with two transfers each way.)
Longtime residents might remember when many blocks of downtown Houston were used as cheap surface parking lots. I think that time is past. With more attractions downtown and less real estate to store cars, the parking operators have responded with a rising tide of rates -- $80 to park near the stadium for a recent Astros playoff game; $100 to park for a Taylor Swift concert!? Just the normal weekend charges have convinced me to use Metro for the coming marathon expo, as I don't need to pay $10-$15 just to stop by the GRB to pick up my race packet. For race morning, though, private transportation still appears to be the winning choice.
I did find B-cycle useful for my time around Buffalo Bayou. Growing up in the quiet suburbs, I'm not yet comfortable with the idea of riding across Midtown and the Montrose. The actual bikes remind me of the rental shoes at bowling alleys: they're functional, but clunky and certainly not the kind of equipment you'd desire to own for yourself. I did notice that
Bike Barn has a rental shop near the Sabine Street bridge with much nicer looking bikes if you're ready to part with more money, of course. At $5 for a day pass, B-cycle is a bargain if you're OK with checking-in at a station once an hour.
Concerning cycling here in the Energy Corridor: The bayou trails are excellent cycle paths separated from car traffic. Howver, the on-street bike lanes on thoroughfares are still only 3-4 feet wide, in uncomfortably close confines between car traffic and curb. That has to change before cycling becomes a popular choice for everyday errands and commuting.
